Germany

BERLIN, Jan 16 (Reuters) - German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht resigned from Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government on Monday, the culmination of growing doubt about her ability to revive Germany's armed forces against the backdrop of the Ukraine war.

Her decision dealt a blow to Scholz at a time when Germany is under pressure to approve an increase in international military support for Kyiv, and Germany's defence capabilities have been called into question after several Puma infantry tanks were put out of service during a recent military drill.

BERLIN (AP) — German police said Monday that a man has died after crashing a car into Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate.

Images from the scene show the mangled wreck of the dark-colored sedan between two pillars of the capital’s popular sightseeing spot.

Poland’s consul in Berlin, Marcin Krol, tweeted that he could confirm that the “driver of the Mercedes that hit the Brandenburg Gate yesterday at 23:30 was a Polish citizen. The car was also registered in Poland.”

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s much-criticized defense minister announced her resignation Monday, as her department steers the massive project of modernizing the country’s military and oversees expanding weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

Christine Lambrecht said in a written statement that she had submitted her resignation request to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, adding that “months of media focus on my person” had stood in the way of a factual debate about the military and Germany’s security policy.

BERLIN, Jan 15 (Reuters) - German armsmaker Rheinmetall (RHMG.DE) could deliver repaired Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine in 2024 at the earliest and would need a confirmed order to begin repairs, its chief executive was quoted as saying by Bild newspaper on Sunday.

Germany announced earlier this month that it would provide Ukraine with 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles to help repel Russian forces.

BERLIN, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Germany's price-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022 was 1.9 percent higher than in the previous year, according to preliminary figures published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Friday.

Despite "difficult framework conditions," such as the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, rising energy prices, delivery bottlenecks and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, the German economy "managed to perform well," Ruth Brand, president of Destatis, said in a statement.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany on Saturday inaugurated its second liquefied natural gas terminal, part of a drive by Europe’s biggest economy to put reliance on Russian energy sources firmly behind it.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz took part in the ceremony in Lubmin on the Baltic Sea coast, which came less than a month after he inaugurated Germany’s first LNG terminal at Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea. Several more are expected to go online in the coming months, including another in Lubmin.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany will soon drop a mask mandate on long-distance trains and buses, one of the country’s last remaining COVID-19 restrictions, the health minister said Friday.

The mandate will be dropped on Feb. 2, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach announced in Berlin.

Other European countries already have scrapped mask mandates in public transport, and Lauterbach faced increasing pressure to follow suit in recent weeks. Masks remain mandatory in doctors’ practices, while masks and negative tests are still required to enter hospitals and nursing homes.

BERLIN (AP) — More than 244,000 people applied for asylum in Germany last year, and more than 1 million Ukrainian refugees came to the country looking for shelter from Russia’s war, the government said Wednesday.

The No. 1 country of origin for asylum-seekers was Syria, followed by Afghanistan, Turkey and Iraq. Ukrainian refugees don’t need to apply for asylum, because they immediately received temporary residency status.

LUETZERATH, Germany (AP) — Several hundred climate activists tried Tuesday to prevent heavy machinery from reaching an abandoned village in Germany that is due to be cleared for the expansion of a coal mine, even as police pushed back protesters and removed road blocks ahead of a possible clearance this week.

The standoff between police and protesters followed a regional court’s decision Monday rejecting a last-ditch attempt by the activists to stay in the hamlet of Luetzerath, west of Cologne, which has become a battleground between the government and environmentalists.

BERLIN (AP) — German investigators on Monday searched two garages used by an Iranian man arrested on suspicion that he could be planning an attack with deadly chemicals.

The 32-year-old suspect and his 25-year-old brother were detained on Saturday night in Castrop-Rauxel, in western Germany, following a tip from U.S. security officials. Authorities say the men are suspected of planning a serious attack motivated by Islamic extremism, for which at least one of them had allegedly sought to obtain the potent toxins cyanide and ricin.